Road tires on gravel

There's the trend of late called "underbiking".  I believe using these tires on gravel qualifies as "undertire-ing".  There are those that can get away with both, and I notice a lot of skinny-ish, file tread tires at BWR, but personally???   Give me a tire with at least some side knobs for that corner that invariably comes up that I overcook.  

I did one gravel race on 32mm GP5000 TL's.  Never again.

Volsung wrote:... BRR measures on a 17.8mm rim so it's kinda hard to use their widths without mathing in your head.

stu wrote:I expect tires like these are fine on pavement but do the small sizes and slick treads work for anyone on dirt or gravel?

mtbnut87 wrote:I did one gravel race on 32mm GP5000 TL's.  Never again.

stu wrote:On a 23 mm rim that tire should measure around 33 mm wide but still just 29 mm high.  On a 25 mm rim it should be close to its marked width.  However my 32 mm GP5000 measure 34 mm wide and 30 mm high on a 25 mm rim.  I think that's pretty small, my GP5000 are quite harsh on broken pavement and I wouldn't use them off road.

Where and how one rides comes to mind. I've had smooth round tires up to 2.1 inches and most are spooky. The 43 mm GravelKing SS+ I got recently are maybe the first pretty smooth tire I've had that are not so spooky but they are on wide rims and have mostly craptactular feel 38 PSI and above.

The side grooves probably make a difference. A friend just replaced Conti Gatorskin 32 mm with GravelKing SS and at that smaller scale than my 43s noticed the same predictable characteristic.

My core posse and self wonder if how you ride makes a difference regarding road or smooth/round tires. We're MTB riders, do pump track and play - nothing too extreme. We have bits of single track or sketchy stuff in our gravel/paved rides. We're carving ski and snowboarders. We like something that's taking care of you when you lean with turns. I love the GP5000 mentioned here but when I'd be on gravel with them I would mostly wish it to be over.

One of the greatest F1 battles I ever witnessed was in a torrential downpour.  Michael Shumacher vs Damon Hill.  Hill ducked in and opted for wets, while Shumacher decided to stay on slicks.  Hill caught him, but once he did it was like Shumacher found another level and not only held Hill off, he drove away to the victory wtih standing water on the track everywhere, completely confounding all human wisdom.  An unbelievable display  of skill and bravado.

My point is that there are always gonna be those people who are at least somewhat comfortable on less than optimal.  Is it doable?  Clearly.  Is it recommended?  Probably not.  Is it the norm???   Absolutely not.

stu wrote:I see BRR has just tested the 34 mm Schwalbe Pro One TLE Addix as a CX/Gravel tire.  Like most big road tires it measures small (31 mm wide, 29 mm high).

I expect tires like these are fine on pavement but do the small sizes and slick treads work for anyone on dirt or gravel?